Musculoskeletal injury associated with fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

With the expanded use of fluoroquinolones and increasing number of reports of tendon injury linked to these agents, clinicians must be aware of the frequency and strength of this association. In the past, pefloxacin and ciprofloxacin were most frequently implicated, but tendon injury is reported with most fluoroquinolones. As many as half of patients with fluoroquinolone-associated tendinopathy experience tendon rupture, and almost one third have received long-term corticosteroids.

The pharmacokinetics of nelfinavir and M8 during pregnancy and post partum.

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the pharmacokinetics of nelfinavir and its active metabolite hydroxy-t-butylamidenelfinavir (M8) during pregnancy and post partum.

Methods: Eleven human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected pregnant women receiving 1250 mg nelfinavir twice daily were enrolled. Pharmacokinetics of nelfinavir and M8 were assessed over a 12-hour period during pregnancy (median, 32 weeks' gestation; range, 31-36 weeks) and post partum (median, 8 weeks post partum; range, 6-15 weeks).

Fluoroquinolone-associated tendinopathy: a critical review of the literature.

With the expanded use of fluoroquinolones for the treatment of community-acquired respiratory infections and reports of tendon injury linked to the use of these agents, we reviewed the literature to investigate the frequency and strength of this association. Ninety-eight case reports were available for review. The incidence of tendon injury associated with fluoroquinolone use is low in a healthy population but increases in patients who have renal dysfunction, who are undergoing hemodialysis, or who have received renal transplants.

Antimicrobial release kinetics from polymethylmethacrylate in a novel continuous flow chamber.

Polymethylmethacrylate is used for local delivery of antimicrobials in the treatment of musculoskeletal infections. A novel continuous flow chamber system was designed to measure in vitro antimicrobial release. Three-millimeter beads containing amikacin, gentamicin, tobramycin, or vancomycin [concentration of 7.

Bacteremia due to viridans group Streptococci with diminished susceptibility to Levofloxacin among neutropenic patients receiving levofloxacin prophylaxis.

Despite the use of levofloxacin prophylaxis during the neutropenic period after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, viridans group (VG) streptococcal bacteremia developed in 6 (16.2%) of 37 patients who underwent transplantation between 1 January and 25 February 2001 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. All 6 patients presented with fever and mucositis after a mean of 4.